Caterpillar Asks Customers To Help Delay Emissions Deadline

Danielle Jackson

Peoria, Ill. -- Caterpillar Inc. is asking its customers to lobby for a delay in the Washington, D.C.-based U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) emissions control standards. In a March 27 letter to its customers, Caterpillar said that the clean air requirements "could have a chilling effect" on the trucking industry and the entire economy, according to a Clean Air Trust press release.

As part of a consent decree signed in 1998 by Caterpillar and other companies such as Columbus, Ind.-based Cummins Inc., the diesel companies agreed to meet tougher diesel pollution standards by October 2002 or pay noncompliance penalties. But according to the Clean Air Trust, Caterpillar will not make the deadline.

Meantime, Cummins received official EPA certification last week for a diesel engine that meets the new clean air standards.